Estimation of land surface incident and net shortwave radiation from visible infrared imaging radiometer suite (VIIRS) using an optimization method

Abstract

Incident surface shortwave radiation (ISR) is a key parameter in Earth’s surface radiation budget. Many reanalysis and satellite-based ISR products have been developed, but they often have insufficient accuracy and resolution for many applications. In this study, we extended our optimization method developed earlier for the MODIS data with several major improvements for estimating instantaneous and daily ISR and net shortwave radiation (NSR) from Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite observations (VIIRS), including (1) an integrated framework that combines look-up table and parameter optimization; (2) enabling the calculation of net shortwave radiation (NSR) as well as daily values; and (3) extensive global validation. We validated the estimated ISR values using measurements at seven Surface Radiation Budget Network (SURFRAD) sites and 33 Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN) sites during 2013. The root mean square errors (RMSE) over SURFRAD sites for instantaneous ISR and NSR were 83.76 W/m2 and 66.80 W/m2, respectively. The corresponding daily RMSE values were 27.78 W/m2 and 23.51 W/m2. The RMSE at BSRN sites was 105.87 W/m2 for instantaneous ISR and 32.76 W/m2 for daily ISR. The accuracy is similar to the estimation from MODIS data at SURFRAD sites but the computational efficiency has improved by approximately 50%. We also produced global maps that demonstrate the potential of this algorithms to generate global ISR and NSR products from the VIIRS data.